Government 'serious' about retaining GP partnership model, says review lead

The Government and NHS England are ‘serious’ about reforming the partnership model to improve it for GPs, despite previous suggestions that it should be removed altogether, the head of the group reviewing the model has said.

Dr Nigel Watson said it was no ‘secret’ that some parts of the Government believed traditional general practice was a ‘corner shop model, and we should be put in the annals of time’.

But he said the head of NHS England and the health secretary had made it clear to him that ‘the partnership model still has value in terms of supporting the NHS’.

At the event, which was held in conjunction with the Family Doctor Association, Dr Watson also revealed his thinking on the benefits of GPs working at scale – such as flexible working hours for GPs – but stressed ‘I don’t think superpartnerships are the only model’.

He also said that for superpartnerships to work, having suitable indemnity arrangements in place was ‘key’.

‘Working at scale, the issue is having a comprehensive scheme that covers everybody working in primary care. That would be hugely valuable for the system, let alone for us as individuals,’ he said.

Meanwhile, he suggested he was looking at the possibility of practices who hand back their contract to the NHS also being able to transfer the lease for the premises to the NHS.

But he suggested the arrangement was not likely to go as far as Scotland’s in which NHS boards are taking over all GP leases.

‘In terms of premises, I don’t think we’ll get to where Scotland has got to but I think there is an element of, if a practice with a 20-year lease hands its contract back, it isn’t responsible for the lease, so the NHS could take the responsibility,’ said Dr Watson.

Dr Watson said: ‘I don’t think I’m naive and if I thought it was all a charade I wouldn’t have agreed to take on the role.

‘I do think they’re serious but I don’t think there’s any particular secret that there are people in government who say that we are a corner shop model, and we should be put in the annals of time – such as in the House of Lords report last year.

‘But I can assure you that having met face to face with NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens and Jeremy Hunt, when he launched the review as health secretary, they are serious. They believe the partnership model still has value in terms of supporting the NHS,’ he added.

It said the ‘small business model’ of general practice was ‘inhibiting change’ that was necessary to put the NHS on a sustainable footing.

However, the RCGP said at the time that while GPs were open to new ways of working there was ‘no one-size-fits-all approach’ and that practices should be able choose the best way of working for their patients.

The organisation’s chair, Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, said the independent contractor model ‘brings important benefits and must be nurtured and maintained as an option going forward’.

Readers' comments (16)

The NHS taking over leases would be a major indicator of trust in the partnership model. Leases are now a real obstacle to partnership for young doctors who are quite rightly frightened of being saddled with a lease without the stability and the promise of a future that previously existed in primary care.

Allow LLPs and limited companies like the majority of other professions and/or cover the liabilities.If you dont increase funding and profits you will not attract partners.At the moment you are better off being a locus than a partner or salaried.If that is not addressed this is a non started of which we have had many over the last decade or so.

Nigel this really is Last Chance Saloon stuff,the next move from HMG/NHSE will be pivotable. We await all manner of incentives to keep going - indemnity,premesis are just two. All we have to date is one kicking after another, the hypocrisy from our SofS re the DDRB confirmed the reluctance to even attempt to address the issue! If you have any influence you really must ensure that resources come rather than platitudes. The Politicians really have to be held to account, you come across as someone of integrity just remember to let the Politicians know that they have no wriggle room left, we are not fools! Good luck!

IT IS GOVERNMENT WHITEHALL OFFICIALS WHO CONSTANTLY INTERFERE IN GENERAL PRACTICE AND BRIEF THE MEDIA AGAINST GPs-WE ALL KNOW THS IS HAPPENING AND IT IS TIME THEY ADMITTED THIS BEFORE THE EVIDENCE IS SUBMITTED.
JUST STOP DOING IT! STOP THE GAMES.
NOTHING WILL CHANGE, GENERAL PRACTICE IS A NASTY, TOXIC PLACE TO BE AND PEOPLE LIKE MADAN HAVE JUST MADE IT ALOT WORSE-JUST WAIT FOR THE NEXT ROUND OF GP DATA ON RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

Allowing LLPs to hold contracts seems such an obvious "easy win" to me (in terms of encouraging GPs to join partnerships) that I can't understand why it hasn't been done long ago. Is there a downside for the government in doing so?

OK, shall we get one thing clear? If we have a viable model, then it shouldn't need 'incentives' to make it work. The very existence of 'incentives' (anywhere)is an admission that the basic model itself isn't fully working or even workable.